Former American President Al Gore, at the recent South By Southwest
Conference, encouraged American citizens to use social media to revolt against
the U.S. government and the current influence of special interest money.

"Our democracy has been hacked. It no longer works, in the main, to
serve the best interests of the people of this country."

Gore pushed for an “Occupy Democracy”, a banding together of Internet
citizens in “digital flash mobs calling out the truth."

"The Internet is the most fantastic tool ever brought into being to
make things right and to fix our democracy. We can use it. It is going to
happen. But how long? It depends on whether [you] feel passionate about it and
get involved."

The ability for passionate individuals to create online groups and
congregate for the same purpose has informed a huge surge of activism in recent
years, with everything from saving rainforests to the legalisation of gay
marriage gaining Internet-based campaigns. One of the most notable examples is the "Arab Spring" of 2010.

The Arab spring was a revolutionary wave of civil resistance protests
across Arab countries, organised through social media. Starting in Tunisia, the political protests spread to Egypt, Libya,
Yemen and Syria, resulting in uprising and leading to major regime changes in many Arab nations.

Social media bypasses the idea of the news intermediary, whereby consumers of information passively absorb the news presented to them by journalists. Instead, the rallying global conversation enables journalism to become a two-way street, where, for once, the average citizen can influence, and change, the news.

Kony 2012

You can't talk about online activism without mention of the new almost infamous Kony 2012 campaign. In a 30 minute YouTube video two weeks ago, American non-profit, Invisible Children, urged Internet users worldwide to make a stand against Joseph Kony and the recruiting of child soldiers in Uganda.

The video has garnered over 80 million YouTube hits, but many viewers took to the web in objection to the viral campaign. Kony 2012 proves that in the online environment, consumers of information still engage in an active process of rationalisation when being broadcasted to. Objection still exists, even in the online community.